If it wasn’t personal before, it is now. The emotions which had been confined
to the Celtic dressing room after last week’s 2-0 defeat by Shakhter
Karagandy in the first leg of their Champions League play-off spilled into
the open ahead of tonight’s return bout at Parkhead.

Party time: Shakher players celebrate their first leg victory over CelticPhoto: AP

Neil Lennon paved the way by saying, of Shakhter’s proclaimed belief that they will become the first Kazakh side to reach the group stage: “I think it [their confidence] is very dangerous and it can always come back to bite you. This is a two-game tie and it is disrespectful to my team as well.

“I don’t need to motivate my players for tomorrow night but if they [Shakhter] want to keep talking the way they are doing then that’s fine.”

Lennon had previously referred to his players’ anger that they had let themselves down by conceding two goals for the first time in five qualifiers over the past two seasons. Georgios Samaras confirmed a much when he said: “‘I don’t remember ever being this angry going into a game. Not angry as in going to kick people – but angry because it’s a game I want a lot.

“I didn’t say much because normally I keep calm and try to think things through, but I was really angry because it was one of those games when you believe you are going win.

“It was hard to accept the result. If you play against a better team than you and you don’t have the quality, that’s one thing – you are going to lose some – but this was not one of those games. It was a game we shouldn’t have lost.

“It doesn’t matter, though, what I say about how we felt, whether we could even believe that we’d lost. The result won’t change – it’s 2-0 and we need to score three goals.

“The only thing I can say is that we know we are a better team. We fully respect them but we know that, at Celtic Park, with our fans behind us, we can do this.

“I don’t care about what they [Shakhter] say. I look at myself and my team. They can say what they want, do what they want, I stay focused on how we’re going to play in the right way to win the game.”

It is certainly within Celtic’s capacity to score twice at home, to take the tie to extra time at least. However, they have looked significantly less formidable since the lamented trio of Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Kelvin Wilson left for England and the peril the Hoops must avoid this evening is the loss of another goal, which would leave them needing four.

Viktor Kumykov, the Shakhter coach, pushed that particular button when he remarked that he had spotted that Celtic make a certain mistake in every game. Lennon duly responded when he said: “He should tell me what it is, I would cut it out. Every team has a weakness otherwise you would be keeping clean sheets in every single game. I don’t know where he is coming from on that one.

“There is no need for him to talk about my team – I haven’t talked about his that way. Sometimes you can set yourself up for things that come back to bite you”.

Nevertheless, when asked where Shakhter would feature in the Scottish Premiership, the Celtic manager retorted: “They would be in the top four or five.” Samaras was slightly more circumspect when he said: “They would not be up there. They’re not Rangers, I’ll say it like that.”

Leaving aside the question of whether Samaras was referring to Rangers present or Rangers past, what really irks Lennon and his players about this tie is that they believe Shakhter to be a considerably inferior football team. There was abundant evidence in the first leg of the Kazakhs’ shortcomings in basics such as passing and keeping possession.

On their game, Celtic are undoubtedly a significantly more adept outfit, but the fact remains that their neglect of concentration in Astana invited Shakhter to inflict trouble. “They scored. That’s it,” said Lennon.

“Goals change games and the psychology of the game – you can analyse it till you are blue in the face. Luck didn’t go with us on the night I am hoping for a huge swing in our favour tomorrow.”

Beram Kayal is out, but Anthony Stokes and James Forrest should make it and Lennon was optimistic about Kris Commons, too. He could use them all being fully fit and hungry for action.

Shakhter can undoubtedly be overhauled – but the chance to make history will infuse them with a determination which suggests that Parkhead will host one of its more nerve-wrenching occasions.